Some routes out of the U.S Gulf saw some erosion on freights this week. European markets are nearly all busy. In Asia, there has been some slippage on palm oil rates but domestic chemical business is more interesting. U.S. Gulf of Mexico Demand has not been as intense on the U.S. Gulf to the Far East route as it was back in January. We see that prompt requirements are still fairly difficult to cover and so charterers have been maximising the cargo sizes, amalgamating a variety of different prod...

Dover Chemical will pay $1.4 million in civil penalties for unauthorized manufacture of chlorinated paraffins at facilities in Dover, Ohio, and Hammond, Ind., as part of settlement of a U.S. EPA notice of violation issued in December 2009. Dover has ceased manufacturing short-chain chlorinated paraffins in U.S. facilities, under the settlement announced last week by the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice. Short-chain CP have persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic char...

FCC Environmental started engineering and site preparation work on its $50 million Group II base oil rerefinery project in Baltimore that is expected to begin operations in mid-2013. We are working with Whitney, Bailey Cox & Magnani LLC of Towson on the preliminary layout of the facility as well as conducting the topographical survey and soil borings, said Vincent Glorioso, vice president of FCC. Additionally, Environmental Resources Management of Annapolis is assisting us with the permitt...

Infineum yesterday said it will begin construction of a new salicylate manufacturing facility at its Jurong Island, Singapore, site in the first quarter of 2012. Salicylate is a detergent used in automotive, heavy-duty and marine engine oil formulations. Chiyoda Singapore (Pte.) Limited. has been appointed to carry out the detailed engineering, procurement and construction phase of the project. Start-up of the new facility is planned at the end of 2013. The project is the single largest inves...

Craft Oil Co. announced Feb. 10 it acquired Neslo Petroleum Products Inc. in Ford, New Jersey. The lubricant distributor did not disclose terms of the transaction. The acquisition, Avoco, Pa.-based Crafts fifth in the last four years, provides the privately held company a stronger New Jersey base, adding 3,500 Neslo customers. Neslo gives us a central location in New Jersey that strengthens our distribution business, Craft CEO Maureen Mills told Lube Report. We distribute to a good portion of ...

Indorama Ventures PCL of Thailand acquired the chemical business of Old World Industries for $795 million, including its ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol manufacturing facility in Texas. The business intends to continue its commitment to the U.S. purified EO merchant market, in addition to the current glycol customer base, Indorama said in a statement. Ethylene glycol is used in antifreeze. Old Worlds ethylene glycol customers included a variety of blenders and oil marketers. According to Indora...

Pertamina, Indonesias national oil company, has appointed Tengyu Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. to distribute its motor oils to 26 provinces in China. The market size in China is 10 times bigger than Indonesias, Pertamina President Director Karen Agustiawan said in a statement last month. As one of the biggest automotive markets in the world, Chinas fast growing economy opens up a good opportunity for Pertamina to reach its sales target of 1 million liters in the first year [in China]. With the gr...